Join Concerned Nazarenes
Dear brothers and sisters,
The battle is intensifying. With General Assembly now over, we have made great progress in alerting many more Nazarenes to the errors of the emergent church movement.The promoters of emergent ideology within the Nazarene are now concerned themselves, because now they know they have a fight on their hands. We will not go away, God willing!
But it’s not just about Nazarenes, it’s the entire body of Christ! If you are not Nazarene but are concerned about the dangers of the emergent church, and contemplative spirituality practices, join us too!
If you would like to be on our mailing list to receive our upcoming monthly newsletter, please email me at:
- MannyRSilva@hotmail.com
You can also join our FaceBook group: Concerned Nazarenes
May God bless you as we all fight to uphold the truth of God’s Word.
/
Manny Silva
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Concerned Nazarenes
Concerned Nazarenes is a group whose purpose essentially is for: support, encouragement, and providing informational resources to Nazarenes and non-Nazarenes whose desire is for the Church of the Nazarene, particularly its leaders, to return to its roots in biblical holiness and to reject the false teachings that have come into the denomination.
A. WHY WE ARE CONCERNED
1. We are concerned about the authority of God’s Word being undermined. We consider His Word to be inerrant (without error) in all matters. The emerging church and a number of scholars within our academic institutions have a lower view of Scripture – often called “soteriological inerrancy*” – which we consider unacceptable. We do not believe that this is the historical stance of the Church of the Nazarene. We are in full agreement with a resolution for our Article of Faith, “The Holy Scriptures,” that was presented by the Southwest Indiana District at the General Assembly in 2009. The resolution states that the “Old and New Testaments” are “inerrant throughout and the supreme authority on everything the scriptures teach.” In the words of the Psalmist, David: “Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in Heaven” (Psalm 119:89).
2. We are concerned about the teaching of Open Theism and Process Theology within our academic institutions. Open Theism basically teaches, among other heresies, that God cannot know the future if man is to have freedom of choice. The Apostle John wrote: “…God is greater than our heart, and knows all things” (I John 3:20). Believing in open theism essentially denies the authenticity and trustworthiness of biblical prophesy as well. Process theology basically teaches that God makes mistakes and learns from those mistakes- another heresy!
Furthermore, we are concerned about the teaching of evolution in our academic institutions, and the historic account of God’s creation being taught as allegorical. We are further concerned because a new group called Nazarenes Exploring Evolution, composed of leading professors, pastors, college presidents and theologians, are promoting the advancement of this unbiblical teaching that evolution is compatible with the teachings of Scripture.
3. We are concerned about the invitations extended to false teachers, such as Rob Bell, Leonard Sweet, Tony Campolo, and others, to speak at our universities and colleges. Their stance on the essential doctrines of the Christian faith, such as sin, judgment and salvation, or their promotion of “Christian mysticism, are a gross distortion of the truth. Because of required chapel attendance, emergent speakers have a captive audience and, as a result, students are forced to listen to emergent speakers or pay a fine if they choose to miss chapel. We are concerned for those who give financially and sacrificially to our academic institutions, expecting the values upon which our denomination was birthed to be upheld – not dismantled by emergent philosophy.
4. We are concerned about experiential works-based techniques for prayer being promoted on and through our academic campuses (contemplative spirituality). These practices – totally alien to our Wesleyan tradition and especially contrary to biblical teaching – include centering prayer, lectio divina, prayer labyrinths, prayer stations and retreats to Roman Catholic monasteries. Most of these contemplative prayer practices are promoted under Spiritual Formation. The Nazarene Publishing House is also contributing to this by selling books that promote contemplative spirituality.
5. We are concerned about the emergent ideology that our academic institutions and General Church within the United States are promoting. We ask a simple question: “Why are we giving a platform to those who would fabricate this falsehood, when the Gospel of Jesus Christ was and is and always will be the “power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16) for all mankind, and for every generation?” The emergent ideology is a perversion of the Word of God and the doctrine of the Church of the Nazarene.
6. We are concerned about the signs and wonders movement infiltrating our denomination in recent years, and with those who are promoting the false Latter Day Rain Movement. Nazarene founder Phineas Bresee distanced our young denomination from this movement as the founder fled Azuza Street along with its false manifestation such as “slain in the spirit”. This has come primarily through the influence of Dan Bohi, a Nazarene evangelist, as well as others such as Bill Johnson who has a following in some Nazarene churches, Kevin Seymour and Rob McCorkle.
7. We are concerned that the “Jesus” that the emergent movement is preaching is “another Jesus” (II Corinthians 11:4). In the introduction to his book, “This Jesus”, the late Nazarene pastor W. E. McCumber wrote:
“Let me tell you why I wrote this little book. First of all, I love Jesus and I welcome any means of telling others about Him. Second, I am troubled by “emergent theory” that is moving toward an “emergent church.” Leaders of this “conversation” or “movement” call themselves “post-modern” and I guess if you need a tag that one is about as good as another. My concern about them springs from their distortions of Scripture and their diminishing of Jesus …. More disturbing to me is the fact that the Jesus they talk about is not the Jesus of Scripture … Only the Jesus disclosed to us in the New Testament is relevant to our times and adequate for our salvation. To diminish Him is to destroy ourselves.
We are in full agreement with Rev. McCumber and pray that you share our concerns. If you do, please join us!
B. HOW TO GET THE FREE DVD AND OTHER RESOURCES
The Emerging Church DVD: First distributed in 2009 at General Assembly (over 6,000 copies), this DVD takes a hard look into the beliefs and practices of one of the most dangerous deceptions assaulting God’s people today. This movement has all but overrun the Nazarene church and in fact the entire professing body of Christ.
Speakers: Pastor Gary Gilley (pastor at Southern View Chapel, writer), Ray Yungen (A Time of Departing); Roger Oakland (Faith Undone); Johanna Michaelsen (The Beautiful Side of Evil); Mike Oppenheimer (Let Us Reason Ministries); Sandy Simpson (Deception in the Church).
To get a copy: email a request to Manny Silva at standfortruthministries@gmail.com, or Tim Wirth at nogoofyzone@hotmail.com
C. ARTICLES ILLUSTRATING VARIOUS TOPIC OF CONCERN
General Assembly 2013 Final Report:
General Superintendents And Other Leaders:
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/open-letter-2-to-the-general-superintendents/
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/dan-boone-goes-after-bible-believers-again/
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2013/08/02/icons-images-nuns-and-confessionals/
Inerrancy Of Scripture:
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/limited-inerrancy-in-the-church-of-the-nazarene/
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/inerrancy-and-wesleyanism/
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/square-peg-nonsense-in-false-theology/
Open Theism:
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2013/04/16/mocking-and-rejecting-god-and-his-word/
Evolution:
False Teachers:
Roman Catholic Practices Promoted:
Homosexuality:
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/homosexuality-at-point-loma-nazarene-university/
Promotion of Mysticism/Contemplative Spirituality:
Promotion of Interfaith Worship:
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/point-loma-summer-retreat-encourages-interfaith-worship-with-unbelievers/
Signs and Wonders:
http://nogoofyzone.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/dan-bohis-false-gospel/
https://reformednazarene.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/this-preacher-is-also-not-above-scrutiny/
Concerns about Dan Bohi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAcvi9Fg7vA
D. LINKS FOR RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION OF NAZARENE ISSUES
www.reformednazarene.wordpress.com. A blog run by Manny Silva, which posts much of the current information and articles about the issues affecting the Church of the Nazarene today. John Henderson is a frequent contributor to the blog. Manny has a ministry that provides free DVDs, other resources, and advice to Christians who need help and information.
(Also Portuguese and Spanish versions of the blog are available:
http://nogoofyzone.wordpress.com/ A blog run by Tim Wirth, who is very knowledgeable about issues such as word-faith movement, signs and wonders, and Roman Catholic influences in the Nazarene church.
Other helpful sites for information:
http://davemosher.wordpress.com/
http://www.ericbarger.com/nazarene.emergent.menu.2.htm Eric Barger’s website. This section has many articles that Eric has published and helped us with concerning the Nazarene problems.
Other Discernment Ministries for Education About False Teachings:
http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/ (Lighthouse Trails Research)
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/ (Sandy Simpson)
http://www.letusreason.org/ (Mike Oppenheimer)
http://www.bereanbeacon.org/en/ (Richard Bennett, former Roman Catholic priest)
http://cicministry.org/ (Bob Dewaay)
http://www.goodfight.org/ (Joe Schimmel)
http://apprising.org/ (Ken Silva)
http://www.holybibleprophecy.org/ (Elliot Nesch)
Former Nazarene 
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